Making sense of

CN TOWER

November 8, 2019

There are 4 machines located in the basement level. Prior reports on Pennycollector.com are unreliable, but it appears two of these machines may have been found at one time on the upper observation areas. The 4 machines in the basement can be reached without paying for admission to the observation decks.

There are a total of 16 coins available. There are only 7 different coins, though, because designs are repeated in the machines. Each coin costs 2 loonies (1-dollar coins) and your nickel. You can use Canadian or American nickels. There is a change machine to change currency and $2 coins into loonies. American golden dollars also work, but you lose out on the rate of exchange. All coins have the picture with an English-language description on one side, and the same picture with French on the other.

Because of the inconsistencies in prior listings, I have randomly assigned the machines a numbering system from 1 to 4.

Machines 1 & 2 are located (as of November 8, 2019) in a seating area near the photo checkout desk. The two machines share 3 identical designs: Toronto skyline; CN Tower; and the Lookout level (346 meters). Machine 1 has a vertical coin for Edgewalk, and machine 2 has a horizontal Edgewalk coin. The machines have a marquee advertising the coins, but each one shows only 2 coins (with French and English sides showing for those 2 coins) – they do not show all 4 coins available on that machine.

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Machine 1 (English)

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Machine 2 (English)

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Machine 1 (French)

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Machine 2 (French)

Machines 3 & 4 are located outside one of the gift shop entrances and are side-by-side. They lacked marquees showing what coins were available. The pictures on the gear wheel are very small, so it is hard to distinguish the dies’ content. These machines have 3 identical coins: CN Tower (same as machines 1 & 2); Glass Floor (342 meters); and SkyPod (447 meters). These last two coins (Glass Floor and SkyPod) have the same design of the tower but with different height measurements, and look extremely similar to the Lookout level (346 meters) nickel in machines 1 & 2. With the small photos on the gear wheels, it is virtually impossible to know which specific coin you are getting. I suggest taking a picture of the gear wheel with your phone and then enlarging the picture to get a better view. For the 4th coin, machines 3 &4 have the same Edgewalk coins found on machines 1 & 2 – vertical for machine 3, and horizontal for machine 4.